Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making
Lessons on creating value, career planning, and practice from Tony Fadell’s professional highs and lows.
Feng Da recommended this book. Its author is Tony Fadell, the father of the iPod, a co-designer of the iPhone, and the founder of Google’s smart-home business Nest. Over a career of more than thirty years, he experienced many highs and lows, accumulated extensive firsthand experience and lessons, and distilled principles and methods for getting things done effectively.
I. What Does This Book Offer Working People?
Although much of the book discusses entrepreneurship, ordinary people can learn a great deal from it too.
First, we all work for our own résumés. We need to keep networking and updating them, even when we are happy with our current jobs. As we get older, many of us also begin thinking about a side business. I do too. Three years ago I started joining communities, including quite a few paid ones. I now have a rough idea of what I want to do, and this year I plan to devote most of my energy to it. As the book says, your job is not just to do the work in front of you; you also need to think like your manager or CEO.
Second, many of the book’s principles and methods apply not only to founders and CEOs but also to ordinary people. Take planning: you may be forgetful—we all are—so open your calendar and make a plan. We have many ideas every day. Without a plan, we may simply follow our preferences and neglect things that are important but not urgent.
Finally, as the Chinese subtitle says, make valuable things in unconventional ways. In simple terms, this means applying an internet mindset: putting users and their experience first, building a minimum viable product to get feedback, then iterating and adding features. This is very similar to software development.
II. Selected Passages
1. The obstacle people often face is not knowing what they do not know.
Improving awareness matters. First you must see it; only then can you do it.
2. You may have learned a lot in school, but in the real world you still need to work as hard as if earning a doctorate before you can master yourself and do meaningful things.
Lifelong learning never stops being relevant. Leaving school is the beginning of self-education.
3. You cannot work with people you do not trust.
Once a chain of suspicion forms, there is no going back.
4. Whatever you are doing, reaching profitability takes longer than you imagine.
This reminds me that building a side business is not easy, while also encouraging me not to give up and to keep working.
5. Anything worth doing takes time: understanding takes time, preparation takes time, and doing it well takes time.
Keep doing the right things and good results will come.
6. Teaching is the best test of your knowledge.
Keep producing, reflecting, and improving.
7. Most people and companies need a near-death experience before they truly change.
Try to avoid that. It is better to break through from within.
8. If you do not make mistakes, you will not gain anything.
Be brave enough to explore and experiment, and learn from the experience.
III. Conclusion
What stayed with me most was the author’s uncertainty and helplessness after selling Nest to Google, and the difficulties he and his team had adjusting afterward. Google’s leadership even considered selling Nest to Amazon, which he disliked; fortunately, the sale did not happen. This resembles my current situation: two-thirds of our development team were laid off, and the team was dissolved and merged into others. The first three weeks were really hard, and I am still adjusting. Overall, this book strengthened my confidence in building a side business. I gained a lot from its experiences and lessons. Reading is worthwhile, and this book is worth reading!